Chicagoans Fooled By Fake Plane Crash

Several Chicagoans admitted they thought a plane crash staged Friday morning by the NBC television show "Chicago Fire" had them fooled. (Published Friday, Nov. 30, 2012)

A simulation for the NBC show "Chicago Fire" apparently caused a bit of a misunderstanding in the show's namesake town.

Crews for the show set up the scene of a small-plane crash at East 31st Street and Martin Luther King Drive on the Near South Side of Chicago, and around 8 a.m., word got around that the crash was real.

Several local residents admitted they were fooled.

"When I first walked up, I thought it was real," passerby Charlotte Powell told NBC Chicago.

"I said, 'Wow, there's a plane in the middle of a city street,'" said Tranae Cae of her reaction as she drove by. "Yes, I did, I thought it was a plane."

"I was driving coming home and I saw it, so I turned around and turned around again, and then I called my husband to tell him to come home," said Robin Whaley-Smith, laughing now.

The scene certainly looked scary. Footage showed a down plane with its left wing splintered off and atop the hood of a nearby car. Police cars, an ambulance and dozens of spectators framed the shot, all during Chicago's morning commute.

Turns out it was just TV.

Police News Affairs said it received no calls from residents about the plane but reports of the alleged crash started to spread so fast that the real Chicago Fire Department sent out an alert asking to disregard.

"Report of plane crash at 31 and King drive is a simulation for TV show disregard," Chicago Fire Media tweeted.

A Bronzeville neighborhood resident said they had no doubt the scene was fake. The hint? About 20 production trucks were seen nearby.